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Small Band, Big Sound Veritah talks their debut EP, Golden Son
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Winnipeg Artists to Watch Our Local Artist Picks for November/December
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Janet Adamana
Only To Come Back Pure As Gold Note From The Editor
The Rhythm To The Blues soma talks creating his emo/hip-hop sound
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ally Sigurdson PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR Steff Shields STAFF WRITERS Graeme Houssin Candace Houle
SOUND, PHRASE & FURY is a Canadian music magazine out to promote musicians not usually covered in mainstream media. All music, photos and articles used are for the purpose of spreading the knowledge of these artists and their music. We always encourage readers to support every act by purchasing releases, merchandise and attending live shows.
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SPF X ALICE RL Lookbook Learn all about the SPF X Project
info@soundphrasefury.com @soundphrasefury facebook.com/soundphrasefury soundphrasefury.com
SPF 7.6 cover photo by Malcolm Garret from pexels
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+ EDITOR’S NOTE
ONLY TO COME BACK PURE AS GOLD Seven years. 41 issues. Nearly 400 musicians and industry professionals featured. To say running Sound, Phrase & Fury has been a whirlwind ride would be the biggest understatement of the Universe. It’s been a hugely humbling experience to be even the tiniest peg in the music machine and to be able to watch the independent industry blossom, both on the local and global stage. Getting to discover and write about the artists we are passionate about has been a fantastic privilege that the SPF team doesn't take for granted. Having such an opportunity has allowed us to grow as writers, music lovers, and just as people. As the industry has grown, we’ve witnessed the changes in artists' needs and what our readers want. We’ve always challenged ourselves to bring as much of that to life. As we embark on our 8th year, we need to push ourselves further than we’ve gone before to grow into the best promotional platform we can be. To do this, we need to take the time to mould ourselves into the new SPF that readers want
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and artists need. Thus, we’ll be pausing the bimonthly publication of SPF until January 2021. Our website will still be an avenue for music promotions, but we’ll be putting more of our focus on learning how to create more informative and entertaining content for the coming years. Before we say ‘see you later,’ we wanted to take the opportunity to thank what made this whole project possible: our local music scene. Take this issue as a token of our sincerest thanks, a love letter to the scene that gave us life. We’ve compiled some of our favourite artists that have been pushing our scene forward and will undoubtedly continue to make waves in the new year. Again, this has been the most amazing adventure, and we could not thank you enough for giving us this incredible opportunity. Thank you for believing in this, in all of us. Thank you for letting us reach for more every year. We’ll see you in 2021.
Janet Adamana Editor-In-Chief
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For Winnipeg pop-punk group, The Brotherhood & Co. the biggest challenge in writing their forthcoming debut EP was branching out and amalgamating their collective love for different styles of rock. From sad acoustic songs at the band's start to recently growing into a heavier sound, the fourpiece have set their sights on creating something more than just your traditional girl-hurts-boy breakup ballad and goofy pop-punk tunes. On the cusp of releasing their new single, 'Stephanie,' out September 13, we sat down with frontman Keenan Reimer, to chat about the band's growth, finding emotional solace through songwriting and what it means to break the boundaries of the genre.
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Q&A +
SMALL BAND,
BIG SOUND Winnipeg rock duo, Veritah, has been swiftly taking the scene by storm with their brand of high-energy, in-yourface alt-rock. A melting pot of 90s/2000s stadium rock, funk and grunge, their sound is a remarkable throwback with a new age touch that is best enjoyed with your speakers absolutely cranked. We sat down with Mitchell James (vocals/guitar) and Ryan Guth (drums) to chat about their influences, finding success and their new EP, Golden Son.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY CANDACE HOULE
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Let’s start at the beginning. How did you guys meet? RG: We're from a tiny town outside of Portage La Prairie called MacGregor. A lot of our relationship was built on the foundation of music. MJ: Ryan was heavily involved in band, and I quit band in grade 6. I wanted to play the saxophone, but I got the clarinet. I was not happy, so I quit out of rage. Then the band teacher hounded me because he knew I played bass, and the jazz band needed a bass player. RG: That's what brought the three cohorts together; we should mention we have another buddy that we work with, Donavan Ostapowich. Why did you decide to be a 2-piece band? MJ: We were bored when we were younger and just out of high school. I didn't play guitar, and he didn't play drums, so we just wanted to have fun. Eventually, we both started to get better at our instruments. One thing led to another, and we went with it. RG: When I was in university for music, we had access to a practice room where we could play live shows, and that was a big boost. That was also a way for both of us to really improve. MJ: There's not a lot of people who do two-piece bands either, so we're like, ‘cool, why not?’ There is a huge folk/country music scene here. How is it carving your path as a rock two-piece? MJ: There's a handful of bands that are doing fairly well. Ex Ømerta is killing it right now. Bullrider just played the Blue Bombers game. I think there's a decent community of musicians that are starting to do bigger things. It's really exciting to see.
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RG: The way we look at it too, is that even if there aren't a lot of musicians creating this kind of music, there's a lot of fans of rock. What we do, we always think there are fans of this we may not be reaching right now, but there are people that like this music. MJ: I went to Death From Above 1979 when they were here, and there were just tons and tons of people, and they’re a two-piece rock band. RG: I’m not comparing our quality to that, but fans exist, you know? I think it's just a matter of grinding it long enough. Eventually, people become aware. Would you say growing up in a small town has influenced your music? RG: The way I always think of it is, we have all the lack of influence because there was no one else from there playing music. We were doing our own thing. Whatever we liked was what came through in what we did. Early on, it was a lot of prog music. We were both members of another group, and that was a lot of prog, then we moved to the city, and we explored new things. What are your main influences now? RG: I like a lot of Canadian bands. I just got done listening to some of the new Big Wreck today. I'm a pretty diverse music listener, so I listen to a lot of other kinds of music. I study jazz. I've studied classical music. Right now, I'm in a country group. I do different kinds of things, so I bring a lot in. MJ: Death From Above for me. I like that a lot of what they play is rhythm-centric. They make the most of what's happening with only drums, bass, and vocals.
Let’s talk about your new EP, Golden Son, where did you record it? MJ: We did it with Donavan. He rounds out the three of us. He led the way and was the gatekeeper. He let the good stuff in. Donovan is a jack of all trades. He did all of our video stuff. He did all of our engineering, pictures, and he produced, mixed, and mastered the whole EP. What did you take away from your first proper recording process? MJ: Acceptance. Accepting where your music is at and just reminding yourself that this isn't it, there's more progress to come. RG: Just having content out there is the best thing you can do for yourself. It gives you a gauge of where you're at and five years down the line you can say you were doing that back then and we're doing it like this now.
MJ: It's really easy to get into always wanting to improve mentality, which is where you’re never happy with where you're at. It happened when we were recording like, ‘is this song good enough for what we're doing?’ Just learning to be okay doing everything you can in that moment, giving this song the best shot, and being able to say I put in everything I had for this and just accepting it for what it is. What do you want people to take away from your music? MJ: I just want them to feel what I was feeling when I was writing it; excited or frustrated, whatever feeling I had. RG: I hope the music can serve as an escape for somebody. When they hear it, it takes them away, and they're able to enjoy the music and not think about whatever is going on - a little sonic vacation.
Stay up to date with Veritah through Facebook, and Instagram. Stream their music on Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud.
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ARTISTS TO WATCH +
WINNIPEG ARTISTS TO WATCH
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COMPILED BY ALLY SIGURDSON, CANDACE HOULE & JANET ADAMANA
As we've watched our local scene grow, we've learned that with every new year, comes new artists, new projects and new music. So to kick things off, we've compiled our picks for local stars that have already made 2019 their year and are bound to continue making huge waves in 2020.
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+ ARTISTS TO WATCH
+ FOLK/ACOUSTIC
SOPHIE STEVENS WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN PHOTO: CARLY BOOMER
Breathing so much positivity into everything she creates, is Winnipeg singer-songwriter, Sophie Stevens. In a world full of gloomy and angst-charged ponderings, Stevens’ take on the acoustic/folk genre delivers a rare beacon of light. With her delicate vocals, happy melodies, and a genuine optimism to her words, Stevens' music feels like a gentle pep-talk from a trusted friend and offers a joyous reprieve from the pressures of modern life. The songwriter just released her debut single, “No One’s Happy,” and with it, she continues to spread her overall message of self-love, self-care, and being kind to one another. With her refreshing, uplifting brand of folk quickly capturing ears and hearts, we know she’ll have a big and busy 2020. ALT-POP
PETER HARDER WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
INSTAGRAM • LISTEN 2019 was a huge year for Peter Harder. His debut album, GARDEN, blessed our ears in February and left us feeling all of the feelings. It had all the components of the ultimate alternative-pop album. We were hungry for more, and Harder delivered. His newest single "Incredible" was exactly that. It proved that Harder was ready for the big leagues. His gorgeous vocals and astounding lyrics can not be ignored. Harder demands and deserves your attention. It’s important to remember that Harder is an entirely self-taught musician and is deeply involved in every aspect of his work. Peter Harder is set to release a new EP in 2020, and we’re on the edge of our seats waiting for his new music.
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ARTISTS TO WATCH +
HIP-HOP/R&B
HAVS WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN It’s been a busy few years for hip-hop/R&B artist, HAVS. Since dropping her debut album Distortion in late 2018, she’s been an unstoppable force in the local and national scene. This year saw HAVS taking on bigger stages like BreakOut West and the Northern Touch Festival, dropping music videos and touring throughout Canada. With such momentum, an unmatched tenacity and a kind of songwriting prowess and stage presence that immediately pulls you in, she’s a musical force to be reckoned with, and we’re excited to see and hear even more from HAVS in 2020.
R&B/SOUL
SEBASTIAN GASKIN WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN Mellow and moving, Sebastian Gaskin’s brand of R&B blends delicate touches of soul, hip-hop, rock, and 90s pop. That backdrop under Gaskin’s smooth vocals matches well with his lovelorn lyrics. Together, they paint glorious images of a broken man singing to his lost beloved. Gaskin continues to garner national attention, from winning the 2018 Indigenous Music Award for the Ka-Kee-Nee Konee Pewonee Okimow Most Outstanding Manitoban, opening for Common and Buffy Sainte-Marie, embarking on his first Canadian tour and releasing his new EP Contradictions. With all that talent and recent success, we know he’ll continue to make waves in the new year.
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+ ARTISTS TO WATCH
+ SINGER/SONGWRITER
THE RAINY DAY APPAREL WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN
PHOTO: LEANNE DOELL
Widely-known for his remarkable ability to pull at a listener's heartstrings and weave all those unearthed feelings into a thread of hope is singer/songwriter The Rainy Day Apparel. His debut EP, Reset, is a perfect collection of masterful emotional offerings, that truly captures the woes and wins of being human. 2019 saw him playing numerous shows and festivals and delving into a new overall sound. We've got our eyes and ears ready for his latest release and continuing to take the show circuit by storm in the new year.
FOLK/ROCK
BRANDON POST WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN PHOTO: LYNETTE GIESBRECHT
Brandon Post is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer. His new EP, Good Intentions in the Big Smoke ,released October 3, 2019, shows a mature, confident songwriter and musician. Blending rock, blues, and folk music Post has outdone himself with songs that make you feel every range of emotion in just six tracks. Having previously toured Belarus, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and the United States, he’s got experience and the drive to take it to the next level. With a spring/summer tour in the works, some new live footage and more singles and videos, 2020 is panning out to be a huge year for Post, and we can’t wait to see where it will take him!
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SPF 7.6 ARTISTS PLAYLIST Snag a listen to the artists featured in Sound, Phrase & Fury 7.6 on Spotify. SoundPhraseFury • SPF 7.6 Artists
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THE RHYTHM TO TH
STORY AND PHOTO BY JANET ADAMANA
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Q&A +
HE BLUES Mixing his emo/punk background and refreshed love for hip-hop, soma is shaking up two of the city’s most beloved scenes. The former drummer of alt-rock group Art Vandelay, soma dove into songwriting and collaborating with local producers to create a new sound that tastefully fuses screamer, sadboy vocals, and dark verses with moody beats. We spoke with soma about finding his place between two genres, and how hip-hop helped break him out of his artistic and personal shell.
You have an emo/alt-rock background, so what inspired you to meld hip-hop into it? S: For a few years after Art Vandelay stopped playing, I tried to form a band that I could front and play guitar and sing, but I found it near impossible finding reliable bandmates, particularly ones that liked the same genre and commit to practice.
It worked out really well for me, actually. The nice thing about hip-hop is you can collab if you want to, but I also have the option to do everything on my own in my bedroom, which is how I spend most of my time. It’s really convenient for me. Over the last year and a half or so, I’ve made more music than I have in my entire life.
After a few years, my friend Jason – he's a producer by the name of Dr3amb3ing – I was posting guitar videos on Instagram, and he told me to come to his studio and record one day. We were just going to hang out and record some guitar stuff. He made a beat out of one of my guitar things. I told him to turn on auto-tune really high, and I just did my emo singing stuff over it, and it worked.
Before you started collaborating with Jason, were you always sort of a hip-hop fan? S: Yeah, I always have been. Since I was young, but I started getting into the heavy auto-tune stuff at the time, like Travis Scott as well as the more emo stuff like Wicca Phase Springs Eternal who was previously in Tigers Jaw, nothing,nowhere. and even Lil Peep. That was just starting to become a thing back then, so I thought, I can do this.
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You’ve had a pretty busy year as far as the amount of music you’ve put out. There’s one in particular, Sadhouse, that you did with another producer. How was that process like versus the album you did by yourself? S: The one I did by myself is called, I’ve Been Lying To Everyone, that one was my first time doing a fulllength album in any stretch and any project. I did that completely myself. It was super, super stressful, in a good way. I had a lot of fun doing it, but it was a lot of work. There is a lot more self-doubt that comes with that process when no one else has a hand on it. That one took a lot longer too. I did all the mixing, all the mastering, everything. The newer one, Sadhouse, was made with my friend whokilledcj. The first show I ever played, I was opening for a band called Daphne Blue, that I now play in. He was there to see Daphne Blue. He was a producer and had no idea I was playing. He approached me after the show and said that we should work on some stuff. He was actually working on a full-length beat tape, and he just wanted me to get on one of the songs. I did, and it ended up being one of my best songs. He liked it, and he said, ‘let’s do a tape together.’ We ended up including that song on the album and doing nine more. What was interesting was, we were never in the same room. He would send me beats, and I would record at home, and we would send things back and forth. It went a lot more quickly, and it was a lot less stressful. That helped me with the
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promotional aspect as well. I was a lot less hesitant to hype it up on social media because it wasn’t just me. It was nice in that sense, so that was a big point of growth for me. Some musicians thrive when they’re around people they’re working with. Do you find you’re more creative when you get to silo yourself? S: Unfortunately, yeah. I’m trying to work on the other aspect. I think a big part of it is that I have a lot of self-doubt and I have a hard time expressing ideas in a room with other people. Still, I have gained confidence over the course of this project, and so I’m trying to push myself to spend more time out and in rooms with other people because I think it’s more fun and more social, but it’s something that I struggle with. You’re balancing between two growing scenes in the city, pop-punk, and hip-hop. Has it been hard finding your place in both of those? S: It definitely has. I’ve made a lot of friends through the local hip-hop scene, and most of them perform at rap shows or in rap collectives, whereas I don’t think I’ve played a single rap show. I always open for bands because that’s where I’m comfortable. I also think there are a lot of people doing the hip-hop/emo thing but my music gears a lot more towards the emo side. I feel like people at a hip-hop show might not appreciate what I’m doing; not to say nobody would but that’s kind of a concern I guess. But people have been pretty supportive.
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'It’s going to be cool when I’m 40 or 50 and I’ll be able to look back and have something that sounds like 2019. ' What other things has this project opened up for you? You mentioned you’ve met a lot of people in the hip-hop community and it helped break you out of your shell. S: I think I take myself more seriously now, and it’s easier to approach people for collabs and things like that. It’s kind of funny because, before this project I was trying to do the band. It was so hard to find someone to collaborate with, but now it’s almost overwhelming how many people are reaching out wanting to make songs together. It has flipped a little bit and that’s nice. I appreciate that. Are there any local artists that you’d love to collaborate with? S: I think most of the people in the city that I’m a really big fan of we’ve either worked together or we’re relatively good friends, but 100 gecs and sewerperson are both a huge influence on me right now.
Any super famous ones? S: Oh, god, so many. Kanye? More serious though, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is a really big one for me, or Jon Simmons from Balance and Composure has a hip-hop thing now, so I would love to work with those guys. There’s a lot of emo artists moving into hip-hop. What do you think it is about the genre that inspires them to open themselves to something so different? S: I think part of it is that it sounds a lot more modern. Emo music has been, especially five or ten years ago; it was the thing. Everyone was in bands. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that. I still really like that scene, but I think it’s going to be cool when I’m 40 or 50 and I’ll be able to look back and have something that sounds like 2019, opposed to making throwback music. I think that’s a big part of it. It just feels fresh and modern and makes it all the more exciting.
Stay up to date with soma through Instagram. Stay tuned for a brand new EP, his first time working with multiple producers compiling a slew of artistic influences. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.
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DIGITAL LOOKBOOK
SPF ALICE RL
2018/2019
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SPF X BRINGS SOUND, PHR MAGAZINE TOGETHER WITH ILLUSTRATORS.
THE AIM IS TO BRING READERS LIMITED EDITION MERCHANDISE THAT CELEBRATES OUR MANTRA, “GET LOST IN SOUND” THROUGH T EYES AND STYLES OF NEW ARTISTS
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RASE & FURY H LOCAL
THE S.
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For the project’s inaugural year, SPF X has partnered with Alice RL, a non-binary, Ojibwe artist whose work draws inspiration from their experiences and cultural teachings and melds it with a signature palette of bright, playful hues. Their artwork creates stunning juxtapositions of human brutality and emotion with hope and whimsy. Alice’s projects include game and comic book art, digital and traditional illustration, and graphic design aimed at presenting beautiful and emotional stories that are LGBT2SQ+ inclusive.
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SPF X continues our aim to create platforms for artists - from the musicians we cover to the writers we work with.
THUS, A PO SHIRT SAL 30
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ORTION OF EVERY SPF X ALICE RL LE GOES TO THE ILLUSTRATOR.
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Our hope is to give SPF supporters a glorious piece of wearable art while connecting local artists with new audiences.
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Photography by Kerri Martens
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SOUNDPHRASEFURY.COM/ALICERL
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